The Secret Garden Concert delivers on its promise of musical magic

It should be no surprise to anyone in the Kingdom of Wonder that the truly memorable and special can be found here from time to time. And Saturday evening that was very much in evidence as “The Secret Garden” concert got underway on the grounds of the Sofitel Phokeethra Hotel.

The setting certainly was like a secret garden. And like a secret, the garden would remain hidden until one completed a perfunctory walk through the hotel, past the ticket counter and through a gap in a hedge. And then suddenly an enormous green expanse ringed by large trees bursts into full view.  How on earth has it not been turned into a football field or a building site?  Your correspondent has been to an event in the space before and obviously lessons were learned on that occasion, the key one being waiting to get things underway until the sun falls low enough for the seating to be in the shade. Under the sun? It’s brutal.  

A flurry of activity and then….The Secret Garden fills with music

It was indeed though a beautiful day this time around.  As the crowd grew, the activity around the stage grew slower with the scurrying about by crew members less hectic.  A baby grand piano graced the massive stage, surrounded by a jungle of microphone stands, music stands and cables, under an intimidating lighting rig.  The production team had been working for hours and still had many hours of the all-singing, all-dancing live event ahead of them The small crew of video operators in particular seemed to be endlessly supplying feed for the giant screens on either side of the stage.  

Master of Ceremonies Alfie though bounded onto the stage right on time at 5.15 pm to get things started. And from there, the schedule barely slipped all evening.  The opening act, the Northbridge Middle School Choir were unfortunately hit by a small COVID outbreak, leaving them rather under-numbered. This did not prevent them however from delivering a gutsy performance.  They were followed by a rare performance by Master Kong Nai. He provided a riveting 20-minute improvisation on the chapei dong veng, dwelling on the importance of recognising your roots and family. 

And while all this was going on onstage, the crowd continued building.  Kids were running about everywhere, this being very much an all-ages event.  Regular seating was augmented by a large area in front of the stage where picnic blankets were laid out.   

The all-star jazz outfit Intan & Friends started in the bright late afternoon daylight, ripping through a set of jazz standards.  The Friends put on a lovely ensemble performance with members Gaby Courroux, Toma Willen, James Atkinson and Daisuke Yasukochi, the most animated bass player since Gene Simmons, passing solos around like hors d’oeuvres.  By the end of their set night had fallen and the light show was beginning to impress.  

Next up was Khmer pop star Sophia Kao, elegantly leaning on the baby grand, accompanied by Metta Legita.  They had some unexpected choices of standards as well as jazz-influenced takes on a couple of Sophia’s songs, “Hell” and “Happy Ending”.  Then there was a detour through the schmaltz pop of “Careless Whisper” and a more soulful finish with “Back to Black” and “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman”.  

Night falls and the Secret Garden becomes an enchanted one

Alex Dance and Aymen Ghali, founders of Flüf, the organisation putting on the event, were all broad smiles as they came on to thank the sponsors, partners and audience as well as tell the crowd to feel free to take away the picnic blankets, jokingly saying, “we’ve nowhere to store 50 of them!”

Under a waning full moon, the main act would then take the stage.  Maki Orkestr are an 18-strong outfit with five violins, a bassoon, two cellos, two percussionists, a drummer, bass player, two trombones, two trumpets and tenor and alto saxophones. The amount of instrumentation, as impressive as it was, almost paled in the light of the enormous amount of energy they put into their performance.  From the Orkestr’s conductor/arranger and guitarist Aymen Ghali to the soaring voice of the extraordinary Daria Morozova, goosebumps and happy feet in the gathered crowd were in abundant supply. 

The music style was a blend of eastern European and Mediterranean music, a veritable banquet of exotic flavours from across the map.  Sometimes it sounded like big band jazz complete with solos traded and inspiring energetic dancing and skirt twirling.  Other times it felt like a more conventional orchestra, with the different sections playing off each other.  The audience quickly got on its feel to dance and essentially never stopped throughout the hour-long set.  Once again it puts the lie to the idea that an audience needs to already be familiar with music in order to enjoy it. 

I’d been hearing for a long, long time from individual musicians involved in this latest development in the Maki Orkestr project how excited they were to be part of the ensemble and just how much work was going on.  The payoff was palpable. As the night drew on, the Orkestr’s delight that everything was working and that the music was being received with such joy was written all over their beaming faces.  

When they were called back for an encore, Daria finally took off her shoes for one last song and dance.  Exhausted and out of songs, the players of Maki Orkestr shuffled off for well-deserved drinks.  Let’s hope they’ll be back soon.  The plan is for The Secret Garden to become an annual event, but right now? That seems all too long a wait.  

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